Steerpike

Oh dear. It was just two weeks ago that Labour’s Naz Shah found herself in trouble for attending a pro-Palestinian rally in Bradford at which a speaker made antisemitic remarks in Arabic. Now the shadow minister for community cohesion appears to be again tempting fate after a scheduled appearance next month at a charity dinner alongside fellow frontbencher Imran Hussain MP. A poster circulated for the ‘Free Gaza, Free Palestine’ fundraiser at the Bradford Hotel on July 3, showed smiling images of the two MPs alongside Imam Asim Hussain for the £25 a head three-course dinner.

The No. 10 media operation has become notorious for releasing announcements late on a Friday night when most hacks have already filed their stories.  Now it seems Labour is learning from the masters of the dark arts, having finally pulled off a successful media strategy – revealing the resignation of its most senior communications official just an hour before the England v Scotland kick off. Ben Nunn, Keir Starmer’s longtime aide and current Labour director of communications, is out after months of criticism from MPs and journalists about the lack of a coherent message from the leader’s office.

Last month's Queen Speech was noteworthy for how little it contained, with the only rabbit out of the legislative hat being (appropriately enough) the Animal Sentience Bill.  But now the proposed legislation, which would give vertebrates a legal right to feel happiness and suffering, has started to attract serious scrutiny as it enters the committee stage of the House of Lords. On Sunday Mr S noted that Lord Goldsmith's response to a parliamentary question hinted that crabs, lobsters and other invertebrates could be included in the scope of the proposed protections. Now it appears parliamentarians have begun to take note, judging by yesterday's debate in the Upper House.

Just minutes before Prime Ministers’ Questions, Dominic Cummings did what he does best: fire off another salvo in one of his long-running feuds. The former chief special adviser took to Substack to hurl another 7,249 word grenade at his onetime Tory colleagues and while it’s the screenshots of Boris Johnson calling the testing situation 'totally fucking hopeless' that will get the most attention, there are a number of incendiary claims worth following up too. Below are the top four ‘Dom bombs’ identified by Mr Steerpike…  Hancock responsible for care homes debacle Last week Matt Hancock told MPs he had seen no evidence to suggest any medical staff had died because of a lack of PPE and that 'everybody got the treatment they needed.

It appears there was a nasty atmosphere down on Whitehall yesterday, where an anti-lockdown demonstration took place. Footage has emerged today of the BBC Newsnight presenter Nick Watt being pursued by an unpleasant mob at the event, with a group screaming at the journalist and calling him a ‘traitor’. Eventually, Watt was forced to run away from the group and finally found refuge behind a line of police. Mr S can only hope that Watt is well after the disgusting incident... Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1OK1K4o_p0 Update: Earlier footage of the incident appears to show that the police did nothing to protect Watt from being harassed. Instead, officers stood by as the presenter was chased on the doorstep of Parliament: https://www.youtube.

The Speaker was not holding back this afternoon when asked by Sir Edward Leigh about Boris Johnson's 6 p.m. Covid press conference. Lindsay Hoyle laid into the government from the Speaker's chair, accusing ministers of disrespecting parliament for failing to inform the House first of all changes to Covid restrictions. Indeed he even claimed that parliament was originally not going to be updated on the changes until tomorrow before the Speaker put his foot down and ordered a statement tonight. The mild-mannered Hoyle did not hold back, telling members: 'This House needs to know first. I find it totally unacceptable that once again, we see Downing Street running roughshod over members of parliament.

At long last GB News is here. After months of speculation and excitement, the first national TV channel to launch in 21 years finally launched at 8 p.m. on Sunday night with chairman Andrew Neil appropriately being the first to speak on air.  He subsequently introduced various GB News stars ranging from archaeologist Neil Oliver and columnist Mercy Muroki to the unabashed 'naughty corner' duo of former BBC anchor Simon McCoy and ex Brexit party MEP Alexandra Phillips. Declaring 'we are proud to be British' Neil told viewers: It's 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, June the thirteenth, 2021.

Having pledged to 'level up' the country during the last election, it seems that CCHQ are determined to practice what they preach. With Treasury civil servants set to move next year across the country to a new campus at Darlington, party apparatchiks in Tory central office are following suit. Party co-chair Amanda Milling announced plans for a new hub in Leeds at October's virtual conference 'in the heart of the blue wall.'  Now CCHQ has stepped up recruitment, advertising yesterday for its first party apprentices in Leeds in the fields of 'finance and marketing.

Tala Halawa, the BBC journalist who was found to have tweeted ‘Hitler was right’, is out at the Corporation. Almost three weeks ago, Steerpike highlighted how media watchdog organisation Honest Reporting and others had uncovered a string of tweets posted on Halawa’s Twitter account from 2014. These included pronouncing that ‘Israel is more Nazi than Hitler’ and ‘Hitler was right’. Halawa had also declared ‘ur media is controlled by ur zionist government’ and tweeted a graphic of a child being burned on a menorah, the Jewish ritual candelabrum.